Caller identification (“Caller ID”) systems are known in the art wherein a caller's telephone number is sent along with a telephone call to the called party. The calling party's telephone number is presented to the called party, who can then decide whether to take the call. Likewise, caller ID information is stored in answering machine systems and presented to the called party when the messages are received. In this way, a called party can decide whether or not to listen to a message based upon the displayed caller ID information, and can quickly return such a call if desired.
New telecommunications technologies have been developed for platforms that can also support telephony, such as the wireless telephone. For example, Short Message Service (“SMS”) permits text messages of up to certain number characters to be sent and received via the network operator's message center to and from any suitable device (e.g., a cell phone, a computer connected to the Internet, etc.) using a SMS Center. An SMS Center is a telecommunications platform that stores and forwards SMS messages. Similarly, Multimedia Message Service (“MMS”) permits the delivery of text, audio, graphics, video, audio and executable code to a recipient through a MMS Center. A MMS Center is a telecommunications platform that stores and forwards multimedia messages. Each gateway can serve a subset of entities communicating via MMS.
A known MMS system is shown in FIG. 1. MMS center A 101 is coupled through the Internet 102 to an Inter-Carrier MMS Center 103 and MMS center B 104. When originator 105 and recipient 106 are served by the same MMS center, the MMS message is handled by that MMS center. However, when the originator and recipient are served by different MMS centers, the message is sent from the originating MMS center (e.g., MMS center A 101) to Inter-Carrier MMS center 103, which processes the message and sends it to the MMS center that serves the recipient (a “terminating MMS center,”) e.g., MMS center B 104. The originator can be a person or a computer program (e.g., an application.)
Such new telecommunications technologies would benefit from the ability to convey sender identification information along with a message. This could help prescreen unwanted messages from being sent on to a recipient, assist the recipient in deciding whether or not to view a SMS or MMS message, and help the recipient to review, search and find stored SMS and MMS messages based on corresponding stored sender information.